Chapter 2
The Kirklands
It had been ten years, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all since Harry Potter's unexpected arrival to Little Whinging. The sun rose on the same tidy front lawns and lit up the neighborhood with its rays. It crept into the Kirklands' living room, which was more or less the same as it had been the day the screams of Mrs. Dursley had echoed through the morning air when she discovered her nephew on her doorstep. Only the photographs on the Kirkland mantelpiece really showed the passing of time. At the beginning, there were lots of pictures of baby twins along with two blond men, but as the time passed, so did the people in them. Now there were trophies littered around the fireplace; Matthew winning first prize in the science fair, Alfred grinning wildly in his soccer uniform, and numerous family photos. The room held no sign of any other boy living in the house.
Yet James was asleep in a cocoon of blankets, but not for long. Alfred was up at the crack of dawn and it was his rambunctious activities that broke the silence of the morning.
"James! Mattie! Wakey wakey!"
James groaned and wrapped himself even tighter. His brother started banging on every door.
"Aww come on guys!" Alfred whined, aiming a kick at James' door. James heard him stampeding down the stairs and entering the living room. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been pretty awesome. There had been a tall weird guy with a long beard and twinkling eyes in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.
This time Alfred's twin Matthew was outside his door.
"James, are you up?" he asked quietly.
"Give me a moment."
"Hurry up please, Al's getting restless. He's starting to run around the house, it's driving Dad mad."
James groaned. Why was Alfred so hyper all the time? He slowly sat up and stretched. Granted, it was the twin's birthday, but at least Matthew had the decency to be mature about it. James clambered out of bed and inspected his unruly blond hair in the mirror. Flattening it to no avail, he sighed and grabbed a mismatched pair of socks.
Once he was properly dressed he walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. Francis was at the stove, cooking something mouthwatering. After giving him a quick hello, he slumped onto the table, realizing that there was an enormous stack of presents on top of it. He groaned again. Matthew joined him at the table and quietly greeted him.
"Happy birthday, Matt," James told him quietly. Matthew smiled in thanks. Francis came over and put pancakes on James and Matthew's plates. "Bonne appétit!"
James dug in. Pancakes were the best thing in the world, other than soccer. He looked at Mattie, who was equally eating his pancake with much gusto.
"The hero is here!" Alfred bounded in, closely followed by a frowning Arthur. "And as hero, I hereby declare that all my presents are my sidekick Mattie's presents!"
Matthew slammed his face into his pancake in embarrassment. James gingerly patted his back.
It was common knowledge that the reason Alfred got more presents than Matthew was because they looked startlingly similar. While Alfred thought it was cool that people mistook his brother for him, Matthew was particularly sensitive about the whole deal. More people called him "Alfred" than they called Alfred "Matthew".
"Okay boys," Arthur said in a no-nonsense voice, "I don't want a repeat of last year, so the birthday boys will get to choose what to do for today."
Matthew's "museum" was swallowed out by "rollercoaster!" from Alfred. Matthew glared at his twin, who threw him the peace sign.
"The amusement park it is," Arthur said uncomfortably, "will that be alright, Matthew?"
"Yes, Dad," Matthew said flatly.
Arthur and Francis threw each other a look. "Mathieu, how about we go to the musée after the amusement park?"
"Okay, Papa," said Matthew, smiling a bit, but everyone had turned to look at Alfred, who had over-enthusiastically dug into his pile of presents. He looked up and saw his family glaring at him. "Sorry..." Alfred said sheepishly.
Half an hour and a few scuffles later, James was squished in the back of the car between Matthew and Alfred, on the way to the amusement park. Before they left, Arthur did his customary drill with the whole family.
"Number one, remember where I parked the car if you're ever in trouble. If you don't remember, just get out of the amusement park or museum by any means possible," He reminded them, ignoring their exasperated looks.
Alfred rolled his eyes. "Why do we do this all the time, honestly? Are we wanted by Scotland Yard?"
Arthur ignored his questions as per usual. "And two, stick together. Get in the car, chip chop!"
Even as he groaned, James knew that whatever eccentricities Arthur insisted on was for his own good. The trouble was that strange things often happened to him and the twins, even though Arthur and Francis were quick to deny the incidents.
Once, James and the twins were waiting for Arthur to pick them up from school, and a very tall scary man clutching a pipe was coming towards them. Matthew had grabbed both James and Alfred's arms in fright. The man walked past them without a single glance.
Two hours later, they were banging on Arthur's car windows. Arthur apparently couldn't see them at all, and was about to drive away without them.
James could vividly remember a time when Arthur decided to hide his old mangy trenchcoat from Alfred. The boy was seven at the time and had developed quite a fixation on the worn out leather jacket. To prevent it from further tear, Arthur had put it in the safety deposit box on the other side of town (it was a relic after all; it belonged to his grandfather).
The next day however, Alfred was running down the stairs three at a time, wearing the coat over his small shoulders. He had a ear-splitting grin on his face as Arthur fainted from shock.
There was another odd incident, one that happened a long time ago. The twins' first day of school was eventful, to say the least. Matthew had decided to bring his favourite plush bear to Kindergarten class and as a result, he got picked on by his fellow peers. When James saw a particularly vicious kid kick his brother really hard, he ran angrily towards the group of bullies. To the surprise of everyone including himself, all the children who picked on Mattie were found sitting on the branches of a tall oak tree.
The Kirklands were called to the school office, where they received a sharp reprimand by the school's Headmaster. Even though all three little Kirklands had to change schools, Arthur and Francis were extremely proud of them for some reason. Their parents treated them to a James Bond marathon that night.
But today was a perfect day, and James wanted everything to go smoothly for his siblings. Going to the amusement park was on James' top favourite things to do, and it was totally worth the long trip and the long line-ups for rides.
There was a heavy amount of traffic on the motorway, so much so that Arthur was beginning to get really annoyed. He started banging his hands on the wheel, the speed and volume getting steadily faster and louder.
"Oh bloody hell!" Arthur snarled, honking the horn loudly. He ignored Francis' disapproving look. "Look at this, Francis! That bloody old man is going at an effing snail's pace." He threw his head down on the wheel.
"Does he have a long beard?" James asked suddenly.
Francis frowned at the odd question. "Why do you ask, cher?"
"I had a weird dream," James explained, "There was this old guy in it. He had a pointy hat and robe."
Arthur lurched the car forwards, almost rear-ending the guy in front. Twisting quickly around to face James, he asked quite violently, "WHERE DID YOU SEE HIM?"
James just stared at his father in surprise.
Everyone was quiet.
"Dad," Alfred spoke up softly, "It was a dream James had. No biggie."
Arthur blinked. Francis was staring at him strangely, while Matthew was busy clutching Alfred's arm in fright. He quickly calmed himself.
"S-sorry lads. C-carry on."
James suddenly wished he hadn't said anything. If he knew anything worth knowing about his parents, it was that they freaked out at the most random things. One moment, they would have a nice dinner conversation, then the next, James or the twins would mention something that would make Arthur jump out of his socks. It always happened; he just wished it wouldn't happen so often.
His family was weird; there was no denying that.
The Auror's office was filled with excitement; memos were zooming to and fro, owls were swooping into oncoming ministry officials and all the lifts leading to the Atrium were jammed. One lift, which was jammed with people, opened up. A seemingly endless amount of wizards and witches tumbled out, picking themselves up and rushing to their destinations. Two men from that group were brushing themselves up. They hurriedly headed down the hallway together, their cloaks billowing behind them. People, frightened by their expressions, pressed themselves to the walls of the corridor in an effort not to touch them.
After all, they were Unspeakables.
"News?" asked the stern-looking taller man.
"Wait until we get to the office," replied the other tersely.
They made an impressive blank hallway in their wake - either because of their imposing gait or the looks on their faces that screamed 'top-secret'.
"The first alarms started screaming a couple of minutes ago," said Germania, his eyes narrowing. "Got a memo from Scrimgeour and headed here right away. Don't suppose there's any leads, Bode?"
Broderick nodded, but did not say more. They turned left and started walking faster, towards the only office at the end of the lane. Huge sparks and lights were shown in the faded glass doors, as well as some angry shouts. Germania put his hand near his wand pocket.
They were close; they could hear the murderous voices of Dumbledore and Fudge through the walls.
Bode stepped forward and pushed the doors with all his might.
"Incarcer-"
"Stupefy!"
"Protego"
Fudge law immobile on the floor while Dumbledore stood rigid; his hands clutched at a nearby chair. Bode helped the aging professor into it.
Never before in his professional life had Germania seen the old coot so emotionally unstable. Angry red sparks flared from Dumbledore's wand, his hair and beard was in disarray and the twinkle was gone from his eyes. His nostrils flared at every heavy breath he took.
Germania glared. "Mr. Dumbledore, if you are under some distress, I may have to ask you to leave the premises," he recited automatically. Behind him, Bode was patching up the Minister of Magic. Dumbledore tensed and cleared his facial features.
"Now, now, there'll be none of that, Mr. Weillschmidt," the old coot reassured, regaining the twinkle in his eyes.
Fudge cleared his throat. Germania looked up. The Minister was now sitting at his massive desk, bowler hat in hand. "Sit down, Mr. Bode, Mr. Weillschmidt," He ordered quietly, conjuring chairs for both of them. "I have some disturbing news to tell you. It's about the Boy-Who-Lived."
James smiled as Arthur parked the car in the busy parking lot. The gates to the amusement park were bright and welcoming. It also helped that it was a bright and sunny summer's day. Even Alfred complained less than usual about the heat, instead focusing on telling James and Mattie which ride they should go on next.
They had pizza for lunch, and when they ordered their meal, Alfred got an extra pizza because he blurted out to the nice cook that it was his birthday. James and Mattie didn't even have to fight with Alfred over the next piece.
All in all, it was a pretty awesome day. But, like all nice days, James knew that something just had to go wrong.
At three, they left the amusement park in favour of the museum. It was only a few blocks away from the amusement park, and the building was quite cool and refreshing. Dinosaur replicas and ancient artifacts adorned the hallways. Alfred stayed behind with Francis to go through the dinosaur exhibit, while James and Mattie entered the ancient Egypt exhibit with Arthur following behind.
James pressed his hands against the glass, looking down at a petrified skeleton inside his tomb. It looked pretty scary and impressive.
"That's only a high priest, James," Arthur said, pointing at the description. "Now, if you want a real Pharoah, it's over there..."
"I'll be right over here, Dad," Matthew called out from James' other side. He quietly walked away.
"Alrighty, Matthew."
James moved on, pausing occasionally to look at a statue or ancient artifact every now and then. "Wow," James exclaimed, approaching a massive domed room filled with glittering Egyptian coffins. "Will you look at that? That must have taken ages to make! Which pharoah is that, Arthur? ...Arthur?"
There was no reply. James turned around. The hallway was empty.
Panicking, James headed out of the dome, back the way he came. He looked through every twist and turn, but no one seemed to be anywhere. It was as if everyone had disappeared. The temperature was starting to feel icy and cold, and an overwhelming sense of dread went through him. James took deep, heaving breaths to calm himself.
"Looking for your parents~?"
James spun around. He found himself face to face with a small young boy about his age, whose head was tilted childishly.
"I'm looking for my parents too~," the boy sniffed tearfully. "Everyone is gone now, I'm getting scared...~" Tears leaked out from the boy's eyes.
James' heart clenched in sympathy. "Hey now," he spoke soothingly, leaning forward. The boy's stopped wiping his eyes. "Don't be like that. Here," he grabbed the other boy's hand softly. "Let's look for our parents together."
"What's your name, by the way?" James asked.
"Rome Vargas." the boy replied, flashing a dazzling grin at James.
For a moment, James could've sworn there was an eerie glint in the boy's eyes. He dismissed it as a trick of the museum lights.
They walked slowly down the hall together.
A/N: I love how many alerts/favs/reviews, etc to my story i've gotten. Honestly, you guys are the bomb!
...also I might need a Beta. But i'm a bit too shy to ask anyone on this site using the Beta reader profile stuff. So I just got my English teacher to check on my first few chapters (yeah yeah, I know, haha teacher's pet). Thankfully, she's lived in Japan for almost a decade, so she already knew about Fanfiction and wasn't freaking out about the Arthur/Francis pairing. Which was cool. I totally forgot about the gayness in my story that I was sure she'd be forever scarred, even though there isn't much boyxboy action. Don't expect prodigial skill when it comes to romantic writing stuff.
But I still need an actual Beta. Anyone willing to step up to the plate? I'd be eternally in your debt, and you could have my first-born chil-,
wait...nevermind. Comments? Improvements? I'd appreciate them :) Sorry for the not very long chapter...